“It’s troubling to know that there are that many individuals who would bracingly attack a police officer, especially an officer that is clearly in uniform and identifiable as being a law enforcement officer,” said Armstrong.

At the end of 2012 the murder of Officer Martoiya Lang rocked the Memphis police department and agencies across the nation. She was just doing her job, executing a search warrant, when she was gun downed.

“Our officers are encountering more suspects that are armed and more suspects that are willing to attack officers. So that is a big concern and it should be a big concern to our citizens as well,” said Armstrong.

Officers know this and aren’t taking any chances when their life is in question.

In the past four months five people have been shot by Memphis police.

The TBI says there is no way to gauge if suspect shootings by police are up across the state, but they are working on a system to do that.